Waste management systems are important in the healthcare field, particularly for patients that are unable to care for themselves. Such patients may suffer from incontinent diarrhea or like maladies and, due to their condition (e.g., severe burns, surgical incisions, etc.), may be susceptible to infections should the fecal matter come in contact with an open wound, burn, surgical site, etc. Moreover, healthcare professionals that come in contact with the fecal matter while attending to the patient may be susceptible to disease and/or the spreading thereof. Thus, a suitable waste management system, at minimum, substantially contains fecal matter within a closed system so as to avoid, for example, substantial skin breakdown, infection risk, cross-contamination of pathogens, problematic patient clean-up, patient discomfort, etc. While fecal management systems are described in the art, many known issues remain unsolved or unaddressed.
The following references relate to fecal management systems or components thereof: U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,216 to Kim; U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,755 to Salama; U.S. Pat. No. 7,147,627 to Kim et al.; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0054996 to Gregory; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0137526 to Machado et al.; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0189951 to Kim et al.; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0271087 to Von Dyck et al.; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0049878 to Kim et al.; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0149922 to Schneider et al., each of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety into this application.
Applicants have recognized that it would be desirable to provide a waste management system that is robust, comfortable for the patient, eliminates known issues and has features that facilitate its use, embodiments of which are described herein.